As Sure As The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow
by TheUSofCalzona
Summary: A Christmas time talk between Arizona and her father. Season 6 Story


A/N - Had this on my LJ and wanted to bring it over!

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Arizona walked into her father's study. The room was dark, the sun had set hours ago. A small fire was the only thing that lit the small room. It was decorated with a large oak desk, book shelves with large leather bound books, a leather couch and two chairs and a stand for the small TV and a light.

She saw her father, Colonel Daniel Robbins of the United States Marine Corps, sitting by the small fire place. He had built the fire before the sun set and fed it slowly all night. He was dressed in tan pants with a tan long sleeve shirt with a green pull over it. His head shaved as it had been since he was 19, a whiskey in his hand.

"Penny for your thoughts." She said, sitting down in the chair opposite of her father.

"I was thinking about your first Christmas." He said softly, taking a sip of his drink and sitting it back on the armrest. "I was deployed in Vietnam at the time." She didn't say anything for a moment, when her father talked about this, about his time in Vietnam she learned the shut up and let him talk. "Your mother wrote me a few weeks before Christmas to tell me you were born, I had left about her 4th or 5th month I think." He muttered, looking into the fire. "She told me what she named you and I knew I married the right woman."

She laughed softly, thinking back to hearing the story and reasons for her name. When she was younger she hated her name, now she was attached to it.

"She sent me a photo." He pulled out his wallet and took a faded photo out. "Said that I had to come home now like I promised, I had a little girl to raise and protect." His voice faded a little as he reached his hand up to his chest and felt the bullet in his chest, one that was still there after nearly 35 years.

Taking the photo from him she looked at herself, she saw a lot of Danny in herself as a baby. "I remember you telling me that when I was little."

He chuckled softly for a few seconds before the laughter died on his lips. "I remember hearing my brother had been shot. It was Christmas morning, 1969." He whispered, looking from Arizona to the fire.

"I don't know that story." She whispered softly, her mind going to Danny again.

"I was in my bunk trying to write your mother a letter. My bunk mate came in and looked at me. "Joe got shot. He's real bad, you better go check on him." He told me." The older man's voice got really soft for a moment. "I walked up to the medical area and I saw him. My baby brother was laying there, half his chest gone. In those days there was nothing anyone could have done. So I sat down and took his hand and we talked and said our goodbyes." His blue eyes were swimming with tears that were years in the making. "I closed his eyes for him and tucked him in with the blanket he had. I kissed his forehead and walked back to start my shift."

She closed her eyes, she worked and saw death every day. She was used to it and numb to it. But the tone in her father's voice, the weakness of it, hit her in the gut. She had never seen her father cry, not even the day Danny was laid to rest.

"I have given my father, my brother, my son and 40 years of my life to this country." His voice was low and softly. "That's enough for one man, don't you think?"

She knew he had been thinking of retiring for a long time but it still caught her off guard. "Yes, sir." She nodded when he looked at her. She reached her hand out and took his. "Thank you, for being my daddy, I love you."

"I love you too Arizona. You are a damn fine daughter." He gave her a smile, a dimple just visible. "You know being Callie home was a big step."

She blushed a little bit, shifting in her seat. "After I got back from Africa, after we worked things out, we decided it was time to do the family thing."

"I'm glad you brought her home. She's the one." He told her, like he was saying a baseball score. It was all fact in his tone.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow."


End file.
